Cryogenic assemblies put Atacama Pathfinder Experiment on track for the Milky Way

Citation

(2006), "Cryogenic assemblies put Atacama Pathfinder Experiment on track for the Milky Way", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 78 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2006.12778eaf.012

Cryogenic assemblies put Atacama Pathfinder Experiment on track for the Milky Way

Cryogenic assemblies put Atacama Pathfinder Experiment on track for the Milky Way

Keywords: Space technology, Space sciences, Solar system

Tekdata Interconnection's Cryoconnect group has supplied state-of-the-art niobium titanium wires to the APEX- SZ Experiment (Plate 2 and Figure 2), which will be mounted on the APEX (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment for the Alma Atacama Large Millimetre Array) telescope, whose construction began this summer. The APEX-SZ Experiment will study galaxy clusters via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect with unprecedented sensitivity. Cryoconnect supplied a new generation of cryogenic looms which will be at the front end of data collection on the TES bolometer arrays and SQUID detectors, enabling a team of international scientists to study distant galaxies.

Plate 2 Cryoconnect's connectors on APEX-SZ Receiver

Figure 2 APEX-SZ received layout showing Crypconnect's feed-through receptacles

The building of the APEX telescope itself is a collaboration between the Max Planck Institut fur Radioastronomie, the Onsala Space Observatory and the European Southern Observatory. These partners are constructing and will operate a modified ALMA prototype antenna as a single dish on the high altitude site of Llano Chajnantor, in Chile.

“Cryoconnect is proud of its involvement in this experiment,” said Roy Blake, Business Development Manager at Tekdata. “The APEX telescope will only support a limited number of experiments, which makes the APEX-SZ contribution even more remarkable.”

Observing the cosmos with the APEX telescope will allow for the study of warm and cold dust in star-forming regions, both in our own Milky Way and in distant galaxies in the young universe. High-frequency spectral lines enable the exploration of the structure and chemistry of planetary atmospheres, dying stars, molecular clouds and the inner regions of starburst galaxies. The project will address issues from the vast scales of the structure of the universe down to the physics and chemistry of comets.

Details available from: Tekdata Interconnect Systems, Tel: +44 (0) 1296 613786.